Prosecutors stun court in Alexoui case

The trial of suspected would-be killers of a known Nicosia businessman took an unexpected turn Monday, with prosecutors citing witness issues and the judge dismissing the case.

The case involves Alexis “Alexoui” Mavromichalis, who leads a Nicosia faction of the underworld according to police and has been a target with multiple attempts on his life. Alexoui and two of his friends were reportedly targets along with other known criminal elements.

The state prosecutor told a Criminal judge on Monday that they would not go after the suspects, who had been extradited for the specific trial, but authorities would instead initiate deportation proceedings for two of them.

“Some witnesses would not come forward and testify in court, and so we don’t want to risk our case,” the prosecutor said.

But in a Monday morning post on social media, Alexoui posted a comment suggesting he was ready to testify.

“Nobody asked me about it,” Mavromichalis wrote on Facebook.

The two Serbs, aged 48 and 54, along with a local 47-year-old long-term convict, were being accused of plotting to kill Alexoui during what some described as a potential bloodbath with a number of targets in Cyprus taken out with the use of foreign hit men.

The case and a gaffe

The media got wind of the plot when a leak to the press exposed a Cyprus police blunder, in which an Interpol Nicosia cop alerted a Serbian mob boss that his hit men on mission to the island were being followed.

Cyprus police argued that the gaffe was a regrettable error, with an officer looking into the case file and inadvertently dialing the wrong phone number while trying to reach a colleague with Interpol Belgrade.

The hits were called off and former deputy police chief Andreas Kyriacou lost his job over the blunder, accused of leaking confidential documents. But his own trial, set for Wednesday, is also up in the air with observers saying it could also be dismissed due to prosecutors refusing to share all evidence with the defence, citing confidentiality issues.

Alexoui has been a fierce critic of the police, accusing some cops of corruption and criticising officials of targeting him and his friends and family unjustly.